The present invention is generally directed to an apparatus for providing ergonomic support and situational sensory augmentation for a user. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an apparatus which contacts different portions of the user's body to ease muscular strain, promote healthy posture, and maintain comfort for the user while providing sensory feedback as needed during a computer assisted activity.
Computer assisted activities are becoming increasingly prevalent and widespread. In just about every field of business and area of technology, and across generally all walks of life, user interaction with and within a computer-generated environment is commonplace. Many activities involve some degree of computer-rendered virtual reality, where the interaction typically occurs through a hand-held controller or other interface device physically manipulated by the user to enter controlling commands from his or her physical environment to the virtual environment. Examples include computer gaming, remote robotic control, training simulation, or other such applications.
The interactive session in many of these applications tends to be both continual and prolonged. This puts considerable strain on the user in a number of respects. Perhaps most notably, the need to hold a static body posture and maintain the isometric limb positions for extended periods to continually handle an interface device causes muscle strain and undue fatigue. That is particularly so when the user is naturally prone to poor posture, and is much too mentally immersed in the interaction to exercise any conscious care over ergonomic positioning beyond the hand manipulations through which interaction with the virtual environment may exclusively occur.
Another less apparent source of strain during prolonged interactive sessions is the lack of physical stimulation except at the usual eyes, hands, and ears which typically serve as the sensory links between the physical and virtual environments. This not only dulls the interactive experience for the user, it loads the cognitive processes of the user with the added burden of imagining those tactile sensations which cannot actually be delivered to other parts of his/her body in the physical environment, as they are in the virtual embodiment.
Various measures have been taken in the applicable arts to ease and enhance the user's interactive experience, and to lessen the void between an interactive session's virtual and physical realities. Most of these measures have been directed to the goal of providing more realistic physical representations of virtual sensations. Such known measures include the use of so-called haptic interfaces to provide tactile feedback to the user in addition to the visual and audial feedback he or she would normally receive during an interactive session. Typically, the haptic interface is provided in the hand-held controller device directly manipulated by the user to command actions within the virtual environment. Consequential effects of commanded actions may then be delivered to the user's physical environment in the form of vibrations or other tactile feedback felt through the manipulated controller itself. Haptic feedback in other more elaborate applications is additionally delivered during an interactive session through surrounding system fixtures and equipment like seating surfaces and gloves.
While these known haptic feedback measures add to the overall interactive experience, they are limited in the portions of the user's body they affect, and therefore limited in the degree of realism of the physical sensations that are imparted. Obviously, many known interfaces bring rumbling or other tactile feedback to bear on the controller-manipulating hand. Others apply similar tactile feedback to the back and bottom of the user when seated in a specially equipped system operating console. Yet, these known interfaces fail to provide in a simple and portable device suitable delivery of localized tactile feedback to various other portions of the user's body like the elbow/forearms, thighs, torso, or the like.
Such known haptic feedback measures also lack suitable provision for improving the user's posture and ergonomic support while he/she engages in an interactive session. That is, users may slump while seated during an interactive session on haptic interface equipped seating surfaces just as well as they may while seated on any other seating surface. Likewise, system equipment like haptic interface gloves may provide realistic feedback, but do nothing for instance to relieve the strain on the users in holding their hands or forearms properly oriented and in place when postured during an interactive session.
Ergonomic chairs and various pillow type devices are known in the art. Some are even intended specifically for use during computer interactive sessions. Most, however, are not equipped with sufficient measures to provide any haptic feedback at all, let alone in the manner noted above. Nor are those devices equipped with sufficient tactile feedback to remedy the types of deficiencies noted above.
There is therefore a need for an ergonomic support apparatus for use during a computer interactive session. There is a need for such apparatus which serves to ease muscular strain, promote healthy posture, and maintain comfort during an interactive session while providing situational sensory feedback to certain localized portions of the user's body.